I woke up at ten, I was still really tired even though I had, had a long night of sleep. More than I am used to these days. I had the previous night been editing a Parkour park video. A long overdue project of mine, which I might add had been in production since, last year?! I never got around to editing the video after acquiring all the footage, but now I had made a start trimming all the clips where on the timeline came to twenty minutes. It’s no wonder I had left it so long! I was feeling groggy and unsure about being out, though it was a lovely sunny day. I started to make a move and was ready before 12pm, deciding to go out earlier than the 1pm and got to town with David. When we arrived there was no one else out early, unusual. Not even Mat who always claimed to be out from ten or earlier…

We trained at Plaza until others arrived there for the usual meet up time of one, maybe even later. It seemed I now had rubbish kong precisions. I was going towards the landing wall, as in only landing on it and servilely crouched. I seemed to be using all my legs for the jump rather than pushing with my arms as well, it was deeply disappointing and I couldn’t seem to change the technique. I moved over at the Atrium I couldn’t do or get the distance for a precision jump across some slate due to the height, drop or just a general fear. Man, what a day it was becoming… I text James telling him that I was already out and where the hell was he? He thought at the time, that I was Phil and then text him back instead of myself. We moved over to IBM and then slowly but surely people starting to arrive in small trickles.

Max – Tic Tac Precision.

I found the running precision from one of the walls near the end to the railing easier than I did before, finally something which I did retain! The standing precision also felt good to do. Today, Jallen wasn’t feeling things either, as he didn’t do the running precision which he had really good the last few times. It seemed I wasn’t the only one suffering an off day. Adam arrived, he wanted to do movements but felt rubbish and fearful of jumps for some reason too. The day claiming yet another Nottingham practitioner. For some reason (first in a long time) a plastic policeman asked for us to move on due to it being private property. Yet, we never (normally) get moved on and it seemed like it was going to be one of those days as he had no understanding, leniency nor did it seem like he wanted to either.

We ended up moving over to Auditorium, a place which people seemed to dislike today. Once we got into the training groove after warming up, we found movements to practise. It was feeling a good day now as there were a few new challenges I hadn’t seen or tried before. The guys were box jumping up onto a wall which increased in height. There was vaulting over a railing (seen below) with different vaults to a wall, before vaulting off. A few did it as a running clear the rail to the wall before vaulting off, seen in the first portrait images. I filmed a few clips for my new RAW video and collected a few clips of the guys training as well. Zain had arrived, after texting me earlier to stay there until he had arrived. He was the same person who pointed out trying to do a tic tac precision off this metal plant pot. It looked horrible and like it might be slippery, much like a spoon was Zain’s analogy of the movement.

Aiden – Kong.

It wasn’t that bad when you applied the right pressure to the metal, if the angle was wrong it did cause you to slip, which a few experienced. On landing it felt right to add palm spin. I do like how some of the shots of that movement came out, even if Max was pulling some silly faces during. Another late comer was Frankie, asking where we were all located. To which I text him back ‘FU, be on time and then you would know…‘ Which I think went down great, I did of course tell him our location after that. Continue reading ‘May Fourteenth.’

I woke up early, as I always did in recent weeks. I was awake at eight o’clock and ready to get out and train. It was a beauty of a day with the sun beaming down. The one o’clock meet up seemed so far away. It was nearly twelve, I was almost ready to head out, but then! It pelted it down with that heavy summer rain, which had hail and even snow in it… What the hell?! Just great, another wasted Saturday. I contemplated not going out, but I had already agreed to meet Adam now and couldn’t really back out, seeing as he was making a detour to pick me up and was already on his way over. The rain, there was so much rain. I packed a raincoat and a thick jumper for the day ahead, as it would no doubt get worse and be colder later on. On the way into town it seemed to be drying out oddly. Then it felt really humid as we made our way to Crowne Plaza, what a weather change and now I had a thick jumper and a raincoat on of all things.

On the way, Adam took a detour past the Orange Walls and Houses hotspot, while I walked past the Arkwright building and up past Rock City. It was a sort of race to see which route was the fastest to get to Plaza. I ended up arriving first, which was odd, as I expected Adam to get there long before I did as I didn’t even rush to get there to beat him. There wasn’t anyone at Plaza, no one at all which was very strange! I saw that James had text me, informing that they had already moved on to Auditorium. Bonus, as I wanted to go there anyway and not be stuck at Plaza all day. As we started to walk over there, it began to spit with rain again, ugh. I spotted Radford and others making their way to Audo as we arrived. No Phil or other regulars to be seen, they must have been at the shops. I was quite disappointed with training, as everything I looked at jump wise seemed really far and impossible. I felt like, it was going to be one of those days…

Empty Crowne Plaza.

James was talking to Adam about the banter which we bounced off each other, the trolling, as well as their own personal talks they had had. Somehow I felt like it was a little pay back I mean we all have our own private jokes, not that it bothered me. More intrigued than anything, but like everything, we all speak about each other. Though, I did keep my super hearing active in case I heard my name mentioned from afar. I didn’t feel warmed up and wasn’t sure what to practise. It seemed like Adam was hating the area, not too sure why? As it is a great spot to train and has so much to do, for all levels of ability. I think Adam felt that most of the movements there were either too small or too big for him? So with that in mind, it had an inconsistency for training unlike other places. It was unusual to see Ben struggling with jumps, he was still suffering the effects of too much leg work and cycling. It was just as well he was heading off soon, to go to Scarborough for the Yorkshire cycling event the next day.

I looked again at the small upwards precision, near the steps at the side of the area. It looked once again horrible, and not possible. I really do hate that jump with a passion, it’s so inconsistent. Max did it easily and that made me sad, he said I could easily do it, so I should. On the floor I could jump from further back than the wall to a step which was a bigger jump and even upwards too. Yet, when I stood on the wall I couldn’t do that jump, why?! I couldn’t force it. Later I somehow managed to do it and then drilled it a few more times, not that I liked it any of those times. I felt more confident with the downwards, landing nearer the outer edge of the wall now. James felt similarly with the jumps and felt equally frustrated with the upwards one. Continue reading ‘Sun, Climbs & Damo.’

It was to be another great day of jumping, the weather prediction was to be a sunny and very humid day. With this, many were set to be attending the training session. Even Johnny, who hadn’t been out since 2011 if memory serves correct. He works weekends and so never has the time to be out training with us and trying to get a weekend off is a nightmare due it to being one of the busier times. The only reason he had this weekend off was due to booking it off for his birthday in advance! I wasn’t even aware it was his birthday, yet he thought he would come out and train for a few hours before heading back home later for his birthday refreshments and meal. What a legend! I got my bus to town, expecting it to take forever, as normally it did and yet today it drove straight to town with no stops. Strange, as that very rarely happened, if ever. What was even stranger was there didn’t seem to be many out. The only people when I arrived at Plaza were the VTM guys across the road, oh and of course Johnny who was sat waiting for people to arrive.

He now had a beard, a ginger one at that trololol. Bar that, he hadn’t changed one bit since the last time he was out, same wit, size and same old Johntron. I still can’t believe he had came out on his birthday of all days, what better way to spend it then with a bunch of like minded nutters. We spoke of the times gone by, general training and how there weren’t many people left who he knew these days. Then there was his Npk t-shirt he was wearing, one of the very few slant designs I’ve had printed. I think only Johnny, Kinga and John had that design done and of course myself. Johnny’s tee looked old and worn, with it being a light shade of gray now rather than the black it once was. The text was very cracked, but still whole and legible. He said it had been through a fair few hundred washes if not more, as he wore it to football as a layer. Crazy, as non of my own t-shirts have faded that much, colour wise and the first generation have only very slightly cracked. Perhaps I just don’t wash them as often as most…

Johnny was nearly bailing already with the first few movements he tried, not to mention they were sketchy. Jesus, he doesn’t need to bail and break himself on his birthday of all days! He mentioned that since bailing a running gainer years ago at High Pavement and nearly landing on his head, being saved by his shoulder and arm he has never been the same since. It felt like it might have been broken, but he never got it seen too, but now it always plays up and doesn’t bend as much as the other. He mentioned his back has had a few problems too along with other body parts, but as always, he powers through with the injured and carried on with football. Eventually things stop hurting, or at the very least get masked and disappear… Until he needs a wheelchair in the future from the amount of injures he has occurred. James had made a grave error of interacting with Mr Johnny danger, by doing some karate kid inspired silliness on the Plaza rails. Swapping feet and trying to throw each other off the railing.

It soon went wrong as he slipped and dropped, we all assumed he had landed on his ‘boys’ luckily he landed on his inner thigh producing a rather tasty looking bruise (as seen above). Max was busy scaling the car park walls and climbing up the outer side of it. This of course, got the attention of the hotel staff. Shortly after the security came out, asking what he thought he was doing?! The guy seemed to be quite aggressive during the confrontation and Max argued back with him. We moved across the road to the Atrium area, while some ventured to Tesco for refreshments. Continue reading ‘Here’s Johnny!’